Friday 28 October 2011

Last Breath: The Morganville Vampires

Last Breath: A Morganville Vampires Novel – Rachel Caine

Pages: 447
Publisher: Allison and Busby
Release Date: 1st November 2011


Claire Danvers is concerned when three vampires vanish from Morganville without a trace. The last person seen with them is someone new to town – a mysterious individual named Magnus. Claire is convinced creepy Magnus isn’t human...but is he a vampire, or something else entirely?

Claire’s hunt for answers leads her to solving another mystery that’s long been puzzling her: why do vampires live so far out in a sunny desert when they’re sensitive to light? The answer has nothing to do with sunlight, but with water – and an ancient enemy who has finally found a way to invade the vampire’s landlocked community. Vampires aren’t the top predator on earth. There’s something worse that preys on them...something much worse. Which means if Claire, and Morganville, want to live, they will have to fight on until the last breath...

*I cannot review Last Breath without some possible spoilers from previous books.*

Man, I love this series so much. They just get better and better with each instalment and Rachel Caine never fails to make me gasp in shock, laughter and awe.

In Last Breath the stakes (pun completely intended) are raised. The whole of Morganville is on edge about Michael and Eve’s engagement and the effect it could have on the precarious balance of power between vampires and humans. And some of the reactions from characters we’ve known for all eleven books were unexpected, some obvious, but one in particular left me slack-jawed with shock. But in all honesty, that’s the least of the problems for the residents of the Glass House.

What awaits them is something incomprehensible: a creature the vampires themselves are afraid of. We don’t know what this is for a fair chunk of the novel and it’s rather unfathomable and very hard to guess at. And I definitely wasn’t expecting what was revealed and, even more so, what was to follow. My reaction was as follows: What the actual hell?! I was left stunned, sad and incredibly confused. I mean, seriously Rachel Caine, seriously? Last Breath is one of those books where you get punched in the stomach every couple of chapters and I just couldn’t put it down.

In the previous Morganville novel, we were given a perspective other than Claire’s, and with last Breath that was taken even further with the introduction of chapters in the perspectives of Shane, Michael, Eve and Amelie. And I loved it. I found Amelie’s especially fascinating. All at once she became more human and I realised just how she’d created Morganville and managed to keep it going for so long and survive – it was a brilliant glimpse into one of my favourite characters in the series. And Shane, well, I always love Shane so I did love hearing from him again. What became even more obvious in hearing the voices of Claire, Shane, Michael and Eve is just how unfailingly loyal to each other they are and how much they love each other. There is literally nothing they wouldn’t do for one another.

There was just so much going on in Last Breath and most of it I can’t even begin to put into words so you’ll just have to read it for yourself while I sit in a corner and rock in wait of Black Dawn.  

Sophie 

3 comments:

  1. I was going to wait to read this on Sunday, as like my day off but now I don't want to! xXx

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  2. I LOVED this series, soooo good :) YA really isn't my thing, at all, but these...these break the mould!

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